I've never skied. Did some langlauf, though. One of my langlauf skis was kaputt so it acquired adjusting every ten meters or so, which made that trip not something I'd like to repeat any time soon. The trouble was that I had a time limit to finish the trip, so when the stupid ski did function properly, I had to be that much quicker to gain time.

The guides accompanying me (I was the last one so they had to stick with me) thought that I was putting on a show so I had a non-stop argument with them about it during that darn trip.
Them: "Oh come on, don't be such a baby. GET ON WITH IT"
Me: "Do you think that I actually like having to stop every couple of meters?"
Them: "I think you're not trying hard enough"
Me: "You try them on then. See if you like it. I'm not doing this for my own amusement, you know. I'd rather be with the group than this faffle. My ski is not closing properly. It's not my fault that you gave me bad skis, FFS. Why didn't you check the material properly?"
Them: "There's nothing wrong with the ski but you're not putting it on well"
Me: "so, you really think that I'm doing this on purpose. You think that I like having to work at least twice as hard to do the same trip. Unreal"

etc.

It's only afterwards when they checked my ski that they acknowledged that my ski was wrong:
Them (after studying the ski): "...Ah...er....the ski was not functioning properly after all"
Me: "Thanks for not believing me when I tried to communicate that message a gazillion times during the trip."

---> no langlauf for me, thank you very much.

Are they still alive

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Quote:

There's this big hoopla in the newspapers about Jodie Foster officially stepping out of the closet. I thought that she had admitted to being gay in an official interview at least a decade ago. I don't quite understand why this is such a big thing all of a sudden.

That's exactly what she said on the GG, that this not her "coming out" because she came out ages ago

I'd go out on a limb and say the Swan Lake, the goat of all goats. Couldn't be any less, no?
Btw I saw a Midsomer Murders episode recently where former Russian prima ballerina's husband was killed. And they played the Swan Lake of course.

Edit: The media has to make hoopla about something. At least Daniel Day-Lewis and Anne Hathaway should have their Oscars secured. To calm dowm Andreea - I WILL go to watch Les Miserables next week or so.

Here's a bit of random Korean trivia: all Koreans turn one year older on January 1st, not on their real birthdays. They still celebrate the birthdays but it's not as special as in other countries. The reason for the January 1st collective birthday (I imagine) is that Koreans need to use different politeness levels to older people and to people who are the same age as them. Imagine if someone was half a year older than you, you'd need to switch between these levels a lot, it would be confusing and difficult. So they decided that everyone born in the same year was the same age. Neat, huh And yeah, they usually ask or offer their age when meeting new people because they need to know which politeness endings to use.